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Caffé Caldesi |
Enjoy pasta la Caldesi, baby
Caffe Caldesi specialise in regional Italian food. Its sister Tuscan restaurant Caldesi is at l5 Marylebone Lane (020 7935 9226) and restaurant manager Vito Pellegrino showed me their Renaissance-style private dining room painted by Katie, one of the owners.
It is richly decorated with murals, arches and cherubs. It has a small bar to cater for the guests at first floor level. Their comprehensive menu of antipasti, pasta, pesce and carne is different to those offered at the Caffe further along Marylebone Lane.
At the Caffe past the lovely entrance with a variety of wine bottles on both sides, you see the large bar and several tables.
You are met by charming Francesco, the bar manager, who greets you with a warm smile and makes you feel at home.
A bar menu is available until 6pm. After this, the bar also serves the dishes available at the first floor restaurant and smoking is allowed. Both the ground and first floors feel airy and command good street views from the windows surrounding the rooms.
There is a good selection of platters ranging from £3.50 for homemade focaccia, marinated olives, balsamic and oil, vegetables for dipping, carpaccio (£9), lasagne (£7), fresh tuna steak salad (£9.50), pasta (£9-£12) to sliced rib eye steak (£14). Desserts feature a flourless chocolate cake (£7) and classic Italian tiramisu (£6).
We ordered the zuppa del giorno (£6) freshly made with tomatoes and beans and the insalata di frutti di mare (£8) – the seafood and avocado salad with a tarragon dressing was beautifully presented and delicious. To follow I recommend the homemade ravioli al branzino stuffed with sea bass and thyme with a lemon butter sauce and courgettes (£13) and polletto alla diavola fiorentina – a crispy baby chicken marinated in rosemary and chilli salsa with spinach and roast potatoes (£15). Excellent house wines: Le Rime and Col di Sasso are £4.50 per glass.
An interesting feature is the fact that Caldesi run an Italian cookery school in a separate building at the back of the restaurant and so they have traditional and lesser-known recipes from all over Italy.
I attended a one-day course which was excellent. We learned how to prepare homemade pasta, we cooked a fish covered with raw salt and then the students gathered and enjoyed the dishes at the restaurant.
A large range of cookery courses are available starting on Friday, September 1 (6.30pm-9.30 pm, £65) including Men in the Kitchen where men learn how to cook a typical three-course Italian meal over a glass of wine. Enthusiasm is all that is needed so novices and experts are welcome.
Other dates include September 2, classic Italian patisserie; September 3, trattoria food for family and friends, September 4, the contemporary deli, September 6, secrets of a perfect risotto followed by the Sunday night supper club on September 10 (6pm–9pm) when Giancarlo Caldesi will teach a different aspect of Italian cooking and few culinary terms in Italian.
Caffé Caldesi
118 Marylebone Lane, W1U
020 7935 1144 |
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